Systemwide password amnesia (v2004 build 19041.173)

Question

I have a Surface Pro 5 with a Windows Hello camera that wasn't working and I wasn't able to fix it. Looked like I'd need to do a reset to fix the drivers, so instead I decided to give 2004 a try, hoping the update would refresh the camera drives. Indeed this worked, but I've been having a lot of problems since the update:

Seems like all sorts of applications and OS features won't remember my username/passwords anymore.

• Every time I log in I have to sign into both one drive personal and one drive business.
• Outlook keeps asking me to log into my office365 every few hours.
• Acrobat keeps asking for my Adobe login every time a load a pdf if I haven't done so in a few hours.
• Settings periodically makes me fix my insider account configuration by re-authenticating with Hello
• Lastpass extention in Firefox keeps asking me to enter my password despite being configured to only require a fingeprint (it first asks me for my fingerprint, but then also asks for the password)
• probably some stuff I can't recall right now.

I wasn't having any of these issues before the update.

I tried following Lastpass's support advice to fix it by reinstalling the extension and resetting several settings but this didn't help.

It's possible these are all individual issues, but since it seems to be an issue with remembering credentials across a variety of applications, I'm suspecting it's a system wide issue and maybe not specific to these applications.

I checked that the credential manager service is running. It was set to manual. I changed it to automatic and rebooted but this didn't seem to help.

Anyone have an idea what could be going on here?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Update 2/8/21

This issue has been fixed by Windows in this Windows 10 update, February 2, 2021—KB4598291 (OS Builds 19041.789 and 19042.789) Preview (microsoft.com).

• Addresses an issue in which using local Service for User (S4U) affects Data Protection API (DPAPI) credential keys and causes users to sign out unexpectedly.

I am updating the Outlook Known Issue article to reflect the same, Outlook and other apps won't remember password after Windows Updates - Outlook (microsoft.com).

Answer 2

Issue resolved in KB4601319 monthly update. If you continue to hit the issue, let us know.

February 2, 2021—KB4598291 (OS Builds 19041.789 and 19042.789) Preview (microsoft.com)

• Addresses an issue in which using local Service for User (S4U) affects Data Protection API (DPAPI) credential keys and causes users to sign out unexpectedly.

Answer 3

I just solved mine. After v2004 upgrade, i noticed the following...

I. my Outlook no longer works; it keep having errors connecting to icloud and gmail keeps asking for password

II. Chrome browser pauses sync every time i quit the application; i had to sign in every time when i open the browser.

III. when using adobe application, such as photoshop. it asks for email and password before i can actually use the app.

I suspect it was the "credetial manager" at fault, so i followed the procedure here...

https://windowsreport.com/11939-credential-manager-no-working-windows-8/

if that solves the problem for you, awesome!

for me, that only solved the adobe sign in problem. for Outlook and Chrome, i later realized it was because my antivirus has VPN protection, and i had it turned on. So what happened was every time when i tried to check mail via outlook or use Chrome to access any webpage that has my account info, VPN would generate a different virtual IP address, and Outlook and other servers think my account is being hacked because of the different IP's. as soon as i turned it off, the problems went away. Been restarting my PC multiple times now and everything seems to work normal. This was not an issue when I was in v1909. hopefully the antivirus software will have some update later on to communicate with v2004 better.

hope this helps!

Answer 4

I have exactly the same problem. It started after I updated to Windows 10 2004 (Dutch version). The recent June 2020 patch (KB4557957) did not solve the issue.

I am currently on version 19041.329 and the Credential Manager loses stored Windows credentials after each reboot. As a result:

• Credentials of network shares are lost, so after every reboot I have to provide them again
• Google Chrome stops syncing; I have to log in to my Google account after a reboot
• MS Office desktop apps indicate that there is something wrong with my account and require me to log in to my MS account again after each reboot
• MS Outlook asks me to log in in to my MS accounts
• Windows notifies me that there is something wrong with my MS accounts, requiring me to provide my passwords again

Note that the latter two do not occur after each reboot, but after several at random.

I followed the steps in the linked article in WHITE-BOXX's post to no avail.

I also created a new (local) Windows account from scratch, but the problem persists.

The only two items that are not removed from Windows credentials in Credential Manager are the following two general credentials:

• virtualapp/didlogical
• SSO_POP_Device

I have no idea what is going on or how to resolve this issue.

Hope anyone can help.